El Tajin

Last week I learned that Mel Gibson’s new movie, Apocalypto, was filmed in the state of Veracruz. To make it even more appealing to me, I learned that Gestalt, the school I’m teaching in, was involved in the filming. The fashion students designed and made many of the costumes, jewelry, and other accessories worn by the actors and actresses, and many students were used as extras.

Unfortunately, the film is showing here with Spanish subtitles, and my Spanish isn’t quite up to snuff to understand everything being said. I’m tempted to try anyway, just for the experience.

Apocalypto or not, my interest in Mexican history was sparked, so Anna, a fellow intern, and I decided to get out of the city of Veracruz for a day and visit the ancient ruins at El Tajin.

"The city El Tajín was the capital of the Totonac state. Tajín means city or place of thunder in the Totonac language, and is believed to have been one of the names for the Totonac god of thunder, lightning and rain." -- Wikipedia

On our way into the archaeological site, we saw five men perform the Voladores Rite. Now, I thought I’d seen some crazy things in Japan, but this ranks way up there.



According to my Lonely Planet, this is packed with symbolic meanings, which I’m sure at some point in time it was, but from my perspective, it’s just a way to sucker tourists into watching something crazy while vendors sell T-shirts made in China.